As the Worm turns: when North meets West

Updated
March 01, 2013 14:22:00

The former Chicago Bulls NBA superstar, Dennis Rodman, has watched a basketball game in Pyongyang sitting next to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, who's reportedly a mad keen basketball fan. Rodman is in the country to promote basketball exhibition matches, as part of a delegation that also includes three members of the Harlem Globetrotters. Kim reportedly fell in love with the NBA while a student at an elite Swiss school in the 1990s, and is a big fan of the man known as 'The Worm'.

EMILY BOURKE: According to the Chinese media, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had a dream come true overnight - he met his childhood hero.

But this hero isn't a fighter for the glorious motherland or a revolutionary in the struggle against the capitalist West.

In fact, he's a citizen of the United States who stands two metres tall, is covered in tattoos and piercings and goes by the nickname "The Worm".

In North Korea to promote basketball exhibition matches, former Chicago Bulls superstar Dennis Rodman turned up at a game sitting next to Kim Jong-un who's reportedly a mad keen basketball fan as North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports.

(Sound of music and crowd cheering)

MARK WILLACY: This is the stock-standard outing for the world's youngest dictator - here Kim Jong-un strides into a concert hall to the frenzied applause of his fawning generals.

He's here to watch a highlights video of rocket launches and live fire exercises - a sort of greatest hits of the North Korean military.

But it appears that the 30-year-old leader of the world's most closed state had another engagement afterwards - a date with a man known as 'The Worm'.

DENNIS RODMAN: I got invited and I just come over and have some fun and hoping that you know, it'll be some fun.

MARK WILLACY: So Dennis Rodman has come to North Korea for some fun. Officially, the former Chicago Bulls basketball star is part of a delegation that also includes three members of the Harlem Globetrotters.

They've come to the Hermit Kingdom to film a documentary and to promote some exhibition games.

On arrival, one enterprising reporter asked the two metre tall Rodman, who's covered in tattoos and is bristling with piercings, if it was his first time to North Korea.

DENNIS RODMAN: It's my first time. I think it is most of these guys' first time here so hopefully we're going to be okay and hope that the kids have a good time up at the game.

MARK WILLACY: One of those who enjoys a good game - according to widespread media reports - is Kim Jong-un himself.

Apparently he fell in love with American basketball while a student at an elite Swiss school in the 1990s and a photo circulating on the internet at the moment is said to be of a young Kim wearing a Chicago Bulls shirt.

And the now North Korean leader sat side-by-side with Dennis Rodman at a game in Pyongyang overnight.

They certainly made for a contrasting couple - the colossal tattooed American, the embodiment of capitalist celebrity culture, sitting next to the jowly militaristic dictator - the personification of Orwellian nightmare socialism.

The Chinese media reported that during the game, Rodman and Kim didn't use translators, and instead talked directly with each other. They both even shared a laugh.

Fittingly, the game between mixed teams of North Korean players and the Harlem Globetrotters, ended in a draw.